There is no better time than the present to be your own financial planner. Today’s DIY culture encourages everyone to just “do it yourself”. There are so many resources available to you online, why not try your hand at teaching yourself about financial planning so you can manage your own financial future? This financial planner even thinks you can. Here are some free tools available to the average investor that can help them manage their investments and create a solid DIY financial plan.
Online Tools Abound
There are more tools online than ever before. You can teach yourself about basic investing principles and strategies with inexpensive courses on Udemy or a full class on how to assess alternative investment opportunities with Harvard Business School online. There are loads of quality investing apps which can allow you to invest and manage your portfolio right from your phone. You can track your net worth and investments with beautiful graphics and charts using Personal Capital and track your budget with Mint or You Need A Budget. There’s always something new coming out of the Financial Technology (or FinTech) space and the internet abounds with resources to give you the information and tools you need to succeed as your own financial planner. Additionally, you can easily follow financial and market news from sites like Benzinga, CNBC, or Yahoo Finance or read the pink-hued Financial Times newspaper to keep apprised of market happenings.
You Can Trade For Free
There is no need to pay an advisor for trading on your behalf when you can trade for free. There are several online brokerages that have converted to a fee-free platform, no longer charging commissions for using their online trading platform. Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Merrill Lynch, and SoFi are some well known companies which are vying for your business and are willing to entice you with low to no account minimums and no transaction fees or commissions. This really lowers the barrier for entry into stock trading so that any layman can do it on their own.
TV Shows for Tips
If you prefer to consume your information through the television medium, you can watch shows like Squawk Box and Mad Money to get information on Wall Street happenings and tips on specific stocks. You can just watch CNBC all day if you prefer. Don’t forget about watching Fox Business News too. For personal finance information, you can watch the Suze Orman Show on CNBC or the Dave Ramsey Show on Youtube. There are many financial professionals and bloggers that have a wealth of information on Youtube as well.
Know When To Ask For Help
If you can read, watch, and listen to all this information on financial planning and investing and make sense of it into a coherent financial plan for you, my hat is off to you. There are many people that can grasp and employ these financial concepts enthusiastically, will gladly continue to seek out new information and strategies that work for them and their financial goals, and have the time and attention to give to this endeavor. Those are the type of people that are best suited to be their own financial advisor. But not everyone can understand these concepts so easily or retains the needed amount of enthusiasm and interest. If, on the other hand, you find that discussions of dollar-cost-averaging and Roth IRA conversions bore you to tears or give you a headache, perhaps you should ask a professional to step in. Just because the tools are available to you doesn’t mean that you have to DIY everything.
There are many times when it just makes the most sense to pay to have a professional do something for you. If you lack the interest, time, and expertise to do something for yourself, perhaps you should pay a professional to do it for you. Sure, you can cut your own grass but if you have a large yard and a self-propelled mower, perhaps you don’t want to spend a few hours every two weeks cutting your grass. Perhaps paying a lawn maintenance guy to cut the grass is a better return on your investment because you can make more by working in those few hours than you pay the grass guy. Or you just cannot seem to get those edges quite so straight or get the bushes trimmed just so and you pay for their expertise to keep your yard in tip-top condition. In the same vein you pay a financial planner for their time, energy, and expertise. They can monitor your portfolio and market news for you and offer suggestions for stocks to purchase or sell. They understand laws and regulations of financial products and can advise you appropriately.
If you love to do everything yourself, keep that independent spirit and use these free or inexpensive tools to teach yourself to be your own financial planner. You may find great joy and satisfaction in learning about financial planning and investing and watching the stock market is something you enjoy doing in your free time. Any lay person can apprise themselves of the resources they need to become comfortable understanding financial markets and financial planning principles. If on the other hand your time is best spent pursuing other endeavors, or you lack the interest or ability to fully grasp these financial concepts, don’t despair. Not everyone loves talking about money and numbers and that is okay. Financial planning professionals are there when you need them and are glad to provide their expertise, understanding, and services for a nominal fee to serve your financial goals. If you find yourself in information overload or you don’t know how to customize your plan to meet your financial needs, it’s time to outsource.
